Appreciation

By Richard Zoglin

When I interviewed AUGUST WILSON in April in New Haven, Conn., he seemed like a man rejuvenated. The last of his 10-play cycle about the black experience in 20th century America was about to open at the Yale Repertory Theater, and he was looking forward to moving on, to projects he had long put off--a comedic play, a half-started novel, maybe even the movies. But just four months later, liver cancer was diagnosed, and he died last week at age 60, ensuring that his life would forever be defined by the great work that he spent more than two decades creating. Each of his 10 plays, from Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (which opened on Broadway in 1984) to his latest, Radio Golf, was set in a different decade, chronicling the struggle of African Americans to come to terms with the legacy of slavery and the injustices of today. His work stood apart from, and above, nearly everything else in contemporary American theater. While others wrote spare, personal, ironic plays, Wilson's were big, verbose and passionate, brimming with social protest and epic poetry. Offstage, too, he was a maverick, opposing color-blind casting and advocating what some felt was a separatist black theater. Yet his work will endure, for everyone. --By Richard Zoglin